The Arithmancy room was different to what she had expected. It seemed smaller and seemed much more similar to an observatory than a classroom. Lynn flicked her wand towards the teacher's desk and a blackboard and chalk appeared in front of it. With another, softer and more curved flick the chalk started to write on the board. When it finished, Lynn smiled, pleased with her handy work. The black board now read in neat, curled handwriting; Arithmancy, Professor Davids. Chatter not tolerated, hard work expected.

With another swish of her wand the black board moved a few inches to the right so that Lynn could sit delicately on the edge of her desk and survey her new students as they entered. And sure enough, a few minutes later they started to trickle in. She stayed put, her arms crossed, and an expectant glare focused at the doorway to the classroom. Eventually, everyone was seated. Lynn pushed herself off of the desk and took a few striding steps towards the students.

"Good morning class, my name is Professor Davids, as seen on the board. I am your new professor of Arithmancy. We will begin with our lesson now, unless anyone has any questions?" She looked expectantly round at the class. It seemed like no one was going to raise their hand until slowly, a hand rose from the back of the room. "Yes, your name and question?"

"Uh, Hannah Abbott, Professor," said the girl attached to the hand. "I was wondering what the difference between Arithmancy, and Divination is? I mean they seem pretty similar."

Lynn had to refrain from rolling her eyes. "Miss Abbott, I should think that after six years of the subject, you would know the difference between Arithmancy and Divination. I refuse to explain it, as it would be a waste of our lessons time. However, if you still feel the need for clarification, I am available after your final lesson of the day for a maximum of ten minutes. Five points from Hufflepuff."

"That's not fair!" Mister Longbottom stood as he exclaimed this, and pointed at Lynn. "She was asking a question, and you're the teacher it's your job to help us learn things! If she wants to know, you should tell her, taking off points is totally not fair!"

At this point, Lynn did roll her eyes, and sigh. Then she glared at Longbottom and stalked over to his desk. "Mister Longbottom, I will not be told how to do my job by a student. Ten points from Gryffindor." She paused as she returned to her position in front of her desk and turned to the class. "Now, despite students insisting on interrupting our lesson, I do intend to actually teach you all something. As Mister Longbottom so crudely put, it is my job to help you 'learn things'. If no one else has any objections?"

The class stayed silent.

"Good. Now..."

And the class went on without further bumps. When Lynn said she wanted to teach them, she meant it. Even though her position at Hogwarts was solely for her to get information to Voldemort, she genuinely enjoyed the subject of Arithmancy, and found it fascinating when she was younger. Because of this, she did find herself wanting to express her interest in the subject to others and help them understand it.

And that is why she found herself waiting in the Arithmancy room after final class of the day had been dismissed. Lynn waited. And waited. And waited. It had been at least fifteen minutes, and just when she was about to leave the classroom, the doors opened, and a flustered Miss Abbott walked in.

"I'm sorry I'm late Professor, I had Herbology down in the greenhouses, so I had to walk all the way up here," she panted, trying to catch her breath. "It's a long way up, there are actually quite a lot of stairs—"

Lynn held up a hand. "That's enough Miss Abbott. Next time, should there be one, come to me at the end of class to warn me that you will be late. I was just about to leave the classroom. Besides I do not appreciate tardiness."

"Yes, uh, sorry Professor. So, I know it was a stupid question, I just struggle with these subjects and I think learning the difference properly would help."

"Right well, first of all, Arithmancy is much more based on muggle mathematics than Divination. It is more precise and calculating, rather than plainly 'seeing the future'…" Lynn launched into a long explanation into the differences, with Miss Abbot frantically scribbling down notes as she spoke. It was nice, almost, to talk about something she was passionate about to someone who was trying to understand.

After around half an hour, Miss Abbott was spilling 'thank you's to her Professor before gathering her things and leaving the classroom. Not long after, Lynn grabbed her things also and returned to her quarters.

The next two weeks went by without any major hitches. Yes, students would chat in class— or in Longbottom's case yell at her— and so detentions were doled out accordingly. She had, actually, come across Longbottom a handful of times in similar early hours of the morning. Neither parties would show any form of recognition if they were in vicinity of each other, however, so it was hard to tell of he did not see her or was avoiding her. She did not mind, though. It was better actually. Longbottom seemed to calm his rebellious nature ever-so-slightly also. He was still given detentions but mainly for talking and/or yelling in class, nothing too intense like the first day in the Great Hall, for which Lynn was grateful. It was quite a 'nothing' two weeks.

Lynn would, on occasion run into Severus in the halls. He always seemed to give her a strange look when she passed. There was curiosity to his gaze, but if she was not mistaken, a slight undertone of contempt. It was almost as if he was trying to figure her out, examine her like a specimen in a lab. Lynn did not like this feeling and was every so often tempted to stop him where he was and ask him what is was he wanted with her. But she didn't.

Despite this gaze, Lynn felt herself intrigued with him. She knew Voldemort trusted him, and so of course she did too. However, there was an element of… guardedness about him. Like he was constantly holding things in, protecting something, holding it close. Lynn did not say anything about it though. She was very aware of her tendency to overanalyse. She did not want to cause a commotion based on her, most likely misplaced, scrutiny. So, she continued on, pretending she noticed nothing.

All in all, Lynn found she very much enjoyed her first two weeks as a member of staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was a very pleasant experience, to finally be at Hogwarts and be surrounded by the literal and figurative magic that was talked about all over Europe. She knew this position was nothing but to help Voldemort, to be another source of information besides Severus from within Hogwarts, but she couldn't help but feel as though she was going to have a likeable encounter with this school.

Every so often Lynn would stop herself, however. No. Don't get distracted. Focus on what you are here for. Gathering information. Getting side-tracked is not an option. But, then again, she is supposed to be here for a while, until Voldemort is ready, so what's the harm in enjoying her time here while she can, she might as well, right?

It was late in the afternoon, and Lynn was in her quarters, supposed to be grading the most recent fifth year papers, but was getting very much distracted by a book she had found in the restricted section of the library. The book was a fiction book, and a good one at that, which was quite a rare thing in the Hogwarts library it seemed. Lynn made the mistake of beginning to read it before she started grading papers, and would put it down for a few minutes, grade around three papers, and then her resolve would crumble, and she would fling open the book again. This continued for around two hours, which was double the amount of time those papers should've taken to grade, and she wasn't quite finished yet. The only reason that Lynn looked up from her book, was because she could no longer see the pages very well and noticed that it was almost completely dark outside.

She placed the book in front of her and rummaged around in her robes to find her wand. Once she found it, she flicked it a few times, and all the lights and lamps in the room were on. Lynn then put the wand back in her robes and reached to pick up her book again.

Instead of doing this, however, she recoiled her arm quickly in pain, and turned her wrist over. The rose on her wrist was darkened slightly and burning. Her pain was replaced with joy for a moment. She was being summoned! Lynn was going to see Voldemort. Without wasting a moment, she fished her wand out and flicked it again, this time summoning her robes. Gathering them in her arms, she left her quarters.

Around halfway through the first week, Lynn and Severus had come up with a plan. They would both meet beside the Great Hall entrance should they both be summoned, before going to Voldemort together. If you were the first there, you would wait there for a maximum of five minutes before leaving. No one showing up meant that only one of them was being summoned, or the other was late. And, well, lateness to Voldemort's summoning's is not tolerated.

And so, Lynn found herself waiting just beside the Great Hall, just in case Severus was summoned also. As it reached five minutes, Lynn guessed he was not summoned. Severus was never late, to anything. So, Lynn left, towards the gates of Hogwarts so that she could apparate to wherever it was Voldemort was summoning her from. Once she reached there, she pressed her wand to her tattoo, and felt the stomach-churning pull of apparation.

A/N hey guys, sorry its waaaaay late, got a little caught up. from now on, updates will most likely be every two (possibly three) weeks, just for the next two months. anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite its late-ness

- favouriteyellowsweater xox